Breaking News from China

androl · Post by **androl** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:37 am

Ricebag fallen over!
CNN is reporting

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:44 am

Is it spam?

ElBarto · Post by **ElBarto** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:06 am

No, rice. Spam comes in cans.

Asiamaniac · Post by **Asiamaniac** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:58 pm

@ Westinghouse and the other non-German / non-Austrian users:

This is a trifling with words. If you wish to express that something does not interest you at all or that you could not care less about something, you may say in German: "That interests me as much as a bag of rice that falls over in China" ("Das interessiert mich genauso viel wie ein Sack Reis, der in China umfällt.")

I have seen that pic somewhere before and it makes me grin.

mirandolina · Post by **mirandolina** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:16 pm

German speakers seem to express their disinterest in terms of food..... es ist mir Wurst.... it's all sausage to me....

androl · Post by **androl** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 2:16 pm

so you don't know this saying outside of Germany? I thought so, because of the English text. Obviously a German made the image.
I found this comment in a forum:
The United States has ceased talks with China's government and is now threatening military action because the rice bags could be an unconfirmed WMD.

also see this (German)
http://hirngespinst.hi.funpic.de/nachrichten.html

tabbs · Post by **tabbs** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 3:49 pm

mirandolina wrote:German speakers seem to express their disinterest in terms of food..... es ist mir Wurst.... it's all sausage to me....

Or beans. "Das interessiert mich nicht die Bohne."

This "sack of rice" expression, however, is a less blunt and more ironical way of saying "who cares" ...

Christian

tabbs · Post by **tabbs** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:55 pm

androl wrote:so you don't know this saying outside of Germany? I thought so, because of the English text.

Don't know about the UK, but in the US it is not really known, I think. They have a similar saying in English ("what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?"), but that refers to unrelated issues rather than irrelevant ones ...

Christian

mirandolina · Post by **mirandolina** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:56 pm

I'd say it certainly isn't known in the UK.

JP Simões · Post by **JP Simões** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:31 pm

mirandolina wrote:I'd say it certainly isn't known in the UK.

Nor in Portugal. The only portuguese expressions I can remember that involve China are:

Negócio da China, "Chinese Business", used to refer to a very good deal that you do, a bargain you find
Chinamarquês (Chinês + Dinamarquês), "Chinish (Chinese + Danish)", word used to represent an imaginary language.

Asiamaniac · Post by **Asiamaniac** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:36 pm

I just come to see that there is another indication that might identify this image as a joke only: The name "Weisenheimer". This is an old US-word which means a person who likes to talk clever things but not always in a sympathic way. Words with "-heimer" in the end for person with a less sympathic attitude came up in the States in the 1920.

eurojuanmi · Post by **eurojuanmi** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:48 pm

a typical spanish expression:

"Esto es trabajo de chinos" : This is a work for chineses

androl · Post by **androl** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:56 pm

don't the Spanish also say "eso me parece chino" ("that seems chinese to me") for something that sounds strange?
In German we say "das kommt mir spanisch vor"

eurojuanmi · Post by **eurojuanmi** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:00 pm

androl wrote:In German we say "das kommt mir spanisch vor"

I didn´t know it, I like to learn new things

JP Simões · Post by **JP Simões** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:39 pm

androl wrote:don't the Spanish also say "eso me parece chino" ("that seems chinese to me") for something that sounds strange?
In German we say "das kommt mir spanisch vor"

I forgot that. We in Portugal say "Isso é chinês para mim" - That's Chinese to me. But I think Para mim isso é grego - Greek - is more used.